During the week that followed she was feverishly aware of Angel to a degree that sent her temperature rocketing. When he looked at her, it was as if a blast of concentrated heat lit her up inside and her bra would feel scratchy against her tender nipples and a dull ache would stir between her thighs, her every tiny reaction in his presence like a slap in the face that shamed her. It was a terrible destructive wanting that wouldn’t go away. He had lit the spark and she seemed stuck with the spread of the fire licking away at her nerves and her fierce pride.
At the end of that week, Angel asked her to stay behind after everyone else had left to go for drinks.
‘Next on the agenda…us,’ Angel murmured sibilantly.
Merry shot him a withering appraisal. ‘There is no us.’
‘Exactly,’ Angel pronounced with satisfaction. ‘Scratch the itch and it goes away and dies, ignore it and it festers.’
‘Your seduction vocabulary needs attention,’ Merry quipped, standing straight in front of him, grudging amusement dancing in her crystalline eyes.
Angel grimaced. ‘I don’t do seduction.’
‘I don’t do one-night stands.’
‘So if I make it dinner and sex I’m in with a chance?’ A sardonic ebony brow elevated.
‘No chance whatsoever,’ Merry contradicted with pleasure. ‘I’m a virgin and I’m not trading that for some sleazy night with my boss.’
‘A virgin?’ Angel was aghast. ‘Seriously?’
‘Seriously,’ Merry traded without embarrassment, reflecting on how her mother had fallen pregnant with her and determined to make every choice that took her in the opposite direction. ‘Sex should mean something more than scratching an itch.’
Angel sprang upright behind his desk, all supple, graceful motion, the fine, expensive fabric of his suit pulling taut over powerful thigh muscles and definable biceps. Her mouth ran dry, her eyes involuntarily clinging to his every movement. ‘It’s never been anything more for me,’ he admitted drily. ‘But I take offence at the word “sleazy”. I am never sleazy and… I don’t do virgins.’
‘Good to know,’ Merry breathed tightly, watching his shirt ripple ever so slightly over his muscular chest as he exhaled while cursing her intense physical awareness of him. ‘May I go home now?’
‘I’ll drop you back.’
‘That’s not necessary,’ she told him coolly.
‘I decide what’s necessary around here,’ Angel pronounced, throwing the door wide and heading for the lift. ‘You realise you’re as rare as a unicorn in my world? Are you holding out for marriage?’
Involuntarily amused by his curiosity, Merry laughed. ‘Of course not. I’m just waiting for something real. I’m not a fan of casual or meaningless.’
Angel lounged back fluidly against the wall of the lift, all naked predator and jungle grace. ‘I’m casual but I’m very real,’ he told her huskily, his deep dark drawl roughening and trickling down her taut spine like a spectral caress.
‘Oh, switch it off,’ Merry groaned. ‘We’re like salt and pepper except you can’t mix us.’
‘Because you’ve got too many rules, too many barriers. Why is that?’
‘Like you are actually interested?’ Merry jibed.
‘I am interested,’ Angel growled, dark golden eyes flashing as the lift doors sprang back. ‘I want you.’
‘Only because you can’t have me,’ Merry interposed drily, her skin coming up in gooseflesh as he flashed her a ferocious appraisal capable of flaying her skin from her bones. ‘That’s how basic you are.’
‘You’re becoming rude.’
‘Your persistence is making me rude,’ Merry told him.
‘I want to see your hair loose,’ Angel bit out impatiently. ‘It’s unusually long.’
‘My mother kept on cutting it short when I was little because it was easier to look after. Now I grow it because I can,’ she said truthfully, her stomach flipping as he shot a sudden charismatic smile at her, his lean, darkly beautiful face vibrant with amusement.
‘You’re a control freak,’ he breathed lazily. ‘Takes one to know one, glikia mou.’